Edible particulates are frequently included, either within or on an upper surface, of edible food products. In one representative example, dough or batter based food products such as cookies, muffins and bars, can include any of a variety of suitable edible particulates. These edible particulates can comprise a wide variety of particulates such as, for example, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, whole and bit portions of candy, raisins, nuts and whole and bit portions of fruit.
When food products are prepared in high volume production processes, edible particulates are generally supplied to a processing line from a bulk supply source. Representative particulate feeders for supplying high volume production equipment can include conveying systems and/or vibratory feed systems. Depending upon the production process and the type of edible food product being prepared, these conveying and/or vibratory feed systems can be successfully employed to transport the edible particulate from the bulk supply so that the particulates can ultimately become an integral component of the final edible food product.
While conveying and/or vibration based feed systems can be successfully used in certain high volume processing/manufacturing settings, there are situations in which such feed methods are impractical and/or burdensome on the production process. For instance, production situations in which accuracy and repeatability of the feeding process is necessary can prove difficult for conveyor and/or vibration feed systems. In addition, process changes requiring differing particulate feed rates can be difficult to quickly address with conveyor and/or vibration based particulate feeding systems. As such, it would be advantageous to have an accurate, repeatable feed system for edible particulates that is quickly adaptable to changing process conditions such as, for example, size, volume and quantity of edible products being prepared.